Roland Emmerich Dishes on Stargate, Independence Day Sequels

The Stargate Reboot and Independence Day Sequels Were Main Topic Of Recent Interview With Emmerich

In a recent interview with Empire, kicking off a week-long stint where Roland Emmerich is serving as a guest editor for Empire, Emmerich had some interesting things to say about the Stargate reboot / sequel, and the Independence Day sequels (yeah, you’re reading that right, sequels, plural). So, let’s get to it, starting with Stargate.

When it was announced that Stargate would be getting a sequel / reboot, fans were torn, as it was announced that the new Stargate movie would not be connected at all to the Stargate TV universe, and would more specifically be ignoring Stargate SG-1. As it turns out, however, Emmerich and producing partner Dean Devlin have a for that. Originally, Emmerich and Devlin conceived of Stargate as a film trilogy, but after the release of the first installment, 1994’s Stargate, the studio decided to develop the property as a TV project, using elements from the movie, but without the involvement of the filmmaking duo.

The TV series took the story and concept in a completely different direction than what Devlin and Emmerich had envisioned, and once Stargate SG-1 became a hit, creating other spinoffs (Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate: Universe) they never had the chance to come back to the franchise. Until just recently. They had this to say when news of the new Stargate movie first broke.

“The Stargate universe is one that we miss terribly, and we cannot wait to get going on imagining new adventures and situations for the trilogy. The story is very close to our hearts, and getting the chance to revisit this world is in many ways like a long lost child that has found its way back home.”

Image from MGM Studios

In the interview, Emmerich was asked again if the Stargate reboot / sequel would be retaining anything from SG-1, to which he answered:

“Elements of it will flow into the reboot, definitely. The amount of characters, for instance. It’s not a two-hander like the first one with James Spader and Kurt Russell, this time it’s a bigger group. Yes, there’s still the James Spader character and the Kurt Russell character, but other people are equally important. James and Kurt won’t come back – maybe as cameos – it’ll be a younger cast.”

So, no story / plot elements will be used, but things like the ensemble nature of SG-1 will be represented. OK, so what did he have to about Independence Day: Resurgence? Well, first up, Emmerich and Devlin were paid to write an ID4 sequel for the studios in the early 2000s, which they did. However, they didn’t feel good about it and ended up returning the money to the studios. Here’s what Emmerich said when asked about it:

“It was after 9/11 and Dean and I wanted to make the movie about peace, and it just didn’t work. There’s still an element of that in the new one, but that version was only about that. We shoot aliens down accidentally and then at the end of the movie they land on the White House lawn and say “we come in peace” and that was it. It was just too weak an idea and we didn’t really want to do it. It didn’t have an Independence Day feel. Only the alien ship was destroyed!”

And when asked about the possibility of more Independence Day sequels, here’s how he replied:

“If it’s successful enough, yes, because it’s set up for a sequel. In 20 years? No, I wouldn’t want to make it with a Zimmer frame!”

Anders Clark is a sci-fi addict, nerd and lover of movies. He enjoys writing about all the latest and greatest in the world of science fiction and can't wait for jet-packs, self driving hover cars, space travel and instant food synthesizers.

6 Responses

I actually preferred the film, I own all the episodes to Sg1, Atlantis, and Universe. Ive read several articles on where the series writers had planned to take Atlantis and Universe and to be honest Atlantis season 6 sounded god awful despite the mostly excellent cast. Universe needed 1 more season for its plot conclusion even though it was my least favorite of the shows as it didn’t feel like stargate. Can’t wait to see where the Real StarGate franchise will go, I remember being quite angry when they announced a Stargate tv series as I knew I wouldn’t get any sequels…untill I learned Richard Dean Anderson was the lead and then I was ecstatic.

Joseph Mollozi and Brad Wright ( I think thats how their names are spelled) both made several comments, Joe has a blog and syfy, Blaster, and I think Collider had small articles… from what I can remember season 6 involved McKay discovering a bomb on Atlantis that couldn’t be removed or kept from exploding unless they flew Atlantis back to the Pegasus Galaxy. Atlantis was moved from Earth to the Moon so The first episode would have been moon based. It was mentioned that we would See more of the Asguardians from Pegasus and we would see some more of the species that kept themselves hid during The Wraith occupation. But we would still be battling Wraith as well as The Genii leading a coalition of worlds… so nothing ground breaking. There was more but you waill have to surf the net.

I’m looking forward to the Stargate films. Roland has had quite a few years to perfect his craft, so I’m thinking he’ll give us something really great. It would be fantastic to see some great new films and see yet another TV series from it.

I too liked the film better. It took years before I really sat down and watched the series. Once I did, I really got into it.

I thought Universe was the best of the series for acting, directing and writing. Atlantis and SG1 were good for a slightly campy feel with seriousness. SG-1 was a great long running story although it took awhile for the crew to gel. I loved how the threats were slowly ramped up through the series, and the show didn’t reset each week. Things that happened had consequences in the Stargate universe, killing one bunch made a power vacuum, others filled them.

Anyways, I don’t see a lot of movies in the theatre, but Stargate is on my list.

You know, I actually found myself enjoying Atlantis the most out of the TV shows. SG-1 was good, as was Universe, and I’m still not quite sure why, but those two series never really pulled me in the way Atlantis did. I think part of it is Joe Flanigan as Shephard, who always appealed to me the most of the many primary characters.

And also, I agree on Emmerich. I’m very interested to see where he and Devlin will take the series now that they’re revisiting it.

Universe had the best CGI of all of them and several of the cast members where Top Notch, totally hated the back and forth between earth using the stones. It was always used for sex and the Lucian Aliance was stupid. It did Havd the best looking Aliens in a tv show EVER! and better then most films. They should have ditched the stargate and communication stones as well as the Alliance and just called it Destiny…then I probably would have loved it.